Going on a Bear Hunt!

One of Elliott's favorite books lately is We're Going on a Bear Hunt, a classic. We've been reading it at least once a day. In honor of the book, we decided to take a family nature walk at a park/forest preserve about 3 minutes from our house and (kind of) pretend we were going on a bear hunt, just like the book. This was our first trip to the park with both kids! It was so much fun to listen and talk about all the new sights of the forest with Elliott.

Upon seeing a large, fallen tree in the forest, Elliott stopped in his tracks:

Elliott (pointing at the tree in awe): "Mommy, what HAPPENED?"

Alina: "The tree fell down... it was old"

Elliott: pauses for a minute then says... "Mommy WHO DID THAT??"

Next thing we know he'll be asking me "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it does it still make a noise?"

Anyway, in the book, a family takes a walk and goes through tall grass, wades a stream, walks through a forest, squelches through mud and hikes through a snowstorm and tip toes into a cave. (The snowstorm part is a little odd but we just roll with it!) Elliott immediately picked up on everything we were doing, talking about the book and making all the noises from the book: "Swishy Swashy" through the grass... "Stumble Trip" through the woods... "Tip Toe" through the cave. Occasionally he would mutter under his breath "We're going on a bear hunt".

Steve spotted a "cave" at the bottom of a tree -- a deep, hollow 'den'. Elliott was in awe when we came upon the 'cave' and peered inside. Rosemary enjoyed tagging along in the Beco. Her favorite part of the outing was spotting a few large dogs sharing the path on our return walk. She gets so excited around dogs that she points with BOTH hands and says "Dog! Dog!"

Elliott also commented -- loudly -- about anyone who passed us on the trail. Probably the funniest was when a runner was heading toward us, clad in short running shorts and shoes (no shirt).

Elliott (loudly): "What's he DOING Mommy?"

Alina: "He's running".

Elliott (louder): "Where he GOING????"

Alina: "Um.. ah, back to the parking lot to find his car".

Elliott (just as the runner is passing us and smiling!): "Mommy, he's got NO SHIRT ON!"

Alina (trying not to laugh) "You're right!'

Elliott (craning his neck around to see the runner): "Maybe he's going to get his SHIRT!"

I mean, c'mon, why else would some guy be tearing down a gravel path in the middle of the woods??? Can't beat 2.5 year old logic!

Altogether, we skipped a list of household chores in order to spend this precious time on our nature walk... and it was well worth it. Can't wait to see what else we do this summer!